Chương 28: Into Darker Depths

Jeremy yelped and jumped away from the physical contact, swinging the spear haphazardly towards Hazel as he did so. She ducked underneath it and let it harmlessly pass by her.

"Woah, big guy! Watch where you're pointing that thing. Nearly took my eye out." Hazel complained.

"Wuh—What?" His head swiveled between the two of them, trying to find the difference between them. Of course today was the day she decided to copy her outfit.

"How are there two of you?"

"Surprise! Meet my [FRIENDLY SHADOW]." Grim gave a sarcastic smile.

"What about [DEFT WEEDING]?"

"Just a cover story, I couldn't tell people what I really got." Jeremy's eyes widened as he got right up close to Hazel and poked her in the ribs. Hazel started laughing, "Stop, stop! I'm ticklish."

"Grim... Why does she feel real?" Jeremy asked.

"What rank is that?" She paused, not sure how much she wanted to reveal. It would probably be smarter for her own safety to keep it to herself, but she was trying to be a better sister. She wasn't entirely sure if that's what she wanted, but she'd try it at least. Besides, it was dangerous here, and if he didn't know what she was capable of, he might get hurt because of it.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," she said, deciding on a middle ground. His eyes flashed between disbelief and fear, likely already putting together what that meant. He wasn't stupid; she knew he'd figure it out.

"That's... not possible. What rank are you?" Jeremy asked, his mouth agape. Grim shrugged, "Almost a D, I just need one more shard to advance."

"Nope, that's not right. What's actually going on here?" Grim looked at Hazel, and the two of them had nothing to say. They were both confused.

"I don't know what to tell you, I got lucky I guess? What's the matter?"

"That's not what I'm talking about. I can believe that, its happened before. What I don't understand is how you're able to summon her at all, you'd have to be at least B-rank for your soul to have enough Aura to use her. And even then it wouldn't be long before it was burnt out." That was news to her, she'd never heard of that before. Saints knew she had a string of absences in school that could have gone over that, either that or it probably wasn't a problem for most people.

The system rarely handed out higher-ranked Boons than the shard, and even if it did, the rank disparity wasn't so huge. She looked over to Hazel to ask if she knew anything, but she stopped when she noticed Hazel had frozen in place, like she had the other day when she had asked her about herself. What did she know that she couldn't say? Grim wasn't sure. Another screech and a cacophony of movement stopped her from replying to Jeremy as a small group of the monkeylike creatures ran out from the forest.

The area around the Gate had been clear-cut and was flat with almost no cover. She'd been expecting to get attacked at some point, but a group of five was almost too much for them to handle. She'd barely been able to take care of one before.

"Oh shit, what do we do?" Jeremy asked.

"Hazel, run forward and distract them; Jeremy, brace that spear. We have to take them out here," Grim ordered as she drew her Chain blade, she raised it and took a stance slightly behind and beside Jeremy, close enough for her to dart in while also allowing him room to manoeuvre with that spear without bumping into her. They hadn't had time to practice, but they'd gone over some tactics on the way over here.

"Here we go!" Hazel shouted with a big smile on her face as she ran forward, wielding Grim's old knife. Five of the creatures ran out from the clearing and immediately focused on her, screaming gibberish as they did so. They fought each other to get to her as she led them away, trying to put as much distance between them as she could. The other ones pushed two of the monkeys out and changed direction towards Jeremy and Grim, sensing they were easier targets. Love what you're reading?

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"Oh fuck, shit, they're coming right for—" Jeremy backed away, no doubt ready to book it back through the portal, but Grim's hand interrupted him as she placed pressure on his shoulder.

"I'm right here, we got this." His breathing was erratic, but he nodded forcefully and tightened his grip on his spear, his eyes narrowed, and she felt the Boon on his weapon activate, giving him enhanced vision. His stance was awkward and his movements would be clunky but she'd take what she could get. The first monkey leaped at them, and Jeremy thrust at the creature's chest, his aim enhanced by the weapon.

It should've hit, but it grabbed onto the wooden shaft of the weapon and swung on it, nearly doing a complete loop as it dodged his strike. The monkey used the momentum of the swing to launch itself at his face, but Grim was ready, she'd already fought these things and knew how fast they were. She dashed forward a stride, just close enough to slash at the creature. It managed to shift in mid air, changing it from a killing blow to merely a graze but she'd expected that, "Chain!"

Its teeth were stopped an inch from Jeremy's face as a chain materialized on the creature's wound, halting its momentum. Hazel was holding the other end of it just as the other three creatures got to her. She slapped one of them as it jumped at her and dematerialized, leaving the chain stuck to the other creature.

"Oof," Grim grunted as Jeremy twisted in panic and slammed the shaft of his spear into her stomach, the force of it dropping her to her knees. The other creature reached them and jumped on her back. A sharp pain hit her, and she spasmed trying to get it off her.

"Grim! Hold still," Jeremy shouted.

"I've got it," She growled as she slammed herself to the ground, letting the creature take the impact. She rolled, and at the same moment she felt it loosen its grip, Hazel appeared and grabbed the creature's fur, throwing it as far as she could. When she looked up, she saw Jeremy had run through the original creature with his spear, It jerked once and stilled, it's colour dulling. Hazel reached over and grazed her hand along Grim's Chain Dagger, copying the boon again, "What did you do?"

Grim asked, looking over to where the chains were still attaching the two creatures.

"I used [CEDE] to transfer over the duplicate I made! I don't think it's going to last very long though," Hazel said. She checked her Boon and found that [CEDE] was usable again, although it still hadn't fully recovered. It must have flipped over sometime today. If she had to guess, they could probably do that trick a few more times before it was unusable again. The other monkey had recovered from being thrown and rushed at them but stopped as Jeremy stabbed it in the side.

Screeching filled her ears as Grim kicked it in the stomach, flipping it onto its back. Before it could recover, she jumped blade first on top of it and sank it into its heart. Unfortunately, all the noise attracted the other three who crossed the distance between them in a moment. Grim backpedaled until she was behind Jeremy again, who waved the creatures off, holding them at bay for a moment as he swung the spear tip around. She really wished she had that wind blade now.

They backed up as Jeremy did so, maintaining the distance between them. With the longer reach of his spear, they were slowly winning. The creatures wouldn't let themselves get hit, but they were accumulating small injuries. A cut there, a bash here. She knew she could've finished the fight right now if she wanted, even by herself, but she held off. She'd win, but she'd get torn to shreds, and the healing they had was a limited resource.

Jeremy smashed one who tried to run forward in the side with the shaft and disabled it, likely breaking some of its bones.

"Don't hit me this time!" Grim shouted as she and Hazel ran forward, each targeting the remaining two, respectively. The one in front of Grim jumped at her, swinging its talons at her as it did so, she sidestepped and stabbed it in the hand. It skidded away from her after it landed. The creature turned and looked at its hand before turning to her, an almost offended look on its face. Jeremy stabbed it in the back, the spear tip coming all the way out the other side, through it's stomach.

Grim's blade stabbed it in the side a second later, its corpse shimmering as she did so.

"Is that all of them?" Hazel asked, wiping the blood from her knife onto one of the corpses. Grim glanced behind her and saw she'd already dealt with her creature.

"Yeah, looks like it. Anyone hurt?" Grim asked.

"Nope!"

"I think I'm fine too." There was a small cut underneath Jeremy's eye, currently trailing blood down his face. Grim moved towards him, "You're not, one of them must have tagged you. Hazel can you heal him?" He felt his wound and blanched a little before recovering, "She can heal too?" Hazel walked up and examined the cut, "I'm a perfect Boon, what can I say?"

"Just heal him, let's pack up these shards and get moving before any more packs come. They're usually solitary creatures, so it'll be easier to take them alone," Grim said as she bent down to collect some shards; her body was slow as she did so. Not moving quite as fast as she'd like. When she didn't hear anything from the two behind her she stood up and turned, repeating her order, "Did you hear me? Let's go—" They were both staring at her. Jeremy spoke first, a look of horror on his eyes, "Grim... your back."